All terrain vehicles (ATVs) have become increasingly popular in recent years as recreational vehicles, and are now also being recognized as utility vehicles. These ATVs are able to traverse all terrains including roadways, countryside hills and even mountain pathways. All terrain vehicles generally include two front and rear wheels with transmission and drive components connected to a centrally mounted motor to at least drive the rear wheels, and in some cases, all four wheels. A body shell covers a subframe of the vehicle and has a seat area straddling the motor. The body shell spreads laterally to define front and rear fenders at least partially covering the front and rear wheels. Typically, front and rear equipment carrying racks are disposed over front and rear portions of the body shell.
Sportsmen have quickly become aware of the utility of such ATVs to access woods, various bodies of water and other off road areas. Hunters, for example, use the ATV to travel into remote and roadless areas to increase the likelihood of locating game. Fishermen rely on the ATV to reach a desired site on a lake or stream, and often find it useful in ice fishing to pull an ice fishing shanty onto a frozen body of water.
Attempts have been made to equip ATVs with various removable enclosures. Examples of this are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,622 issued Dec. 29, 1992 to Gutta and U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,844 issued Mar. 29, 1994 to Haustein. The '844 patent discloses a rigid cab structure and folding hunting stand covered by a camouflaged material.
It is also known that ATV users and other sportsmen like to use a portable shelter in connection with their gaming activities. Such a shelter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,615 issued Jul. 6, 1999 to Matthew A. Stuck, Sr.
The known prior art patents do not disclose a portable, collapsible and expandable shelter which is swingably connected to a support surface, for example, of the ATV such that, when expanded, the shelter lies fully erected adjacent the support surface. The known prior art patents also do not teach a mounting structure for movably connecting a portable foldable shelter to a support surface. The known prior art patents further do not disclose an ATV mounted portable shelter including a cover for enclosing the ATV when the shelter is fully erected adjacent the ATV.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a portable, foldable shelter movably adaptable to a variety of support surfaces, such as on an ATV, having the aforedescribed features absent from the known prior art.